Pierre, SD (LifeNews.com) -- For a second time, the voters of South Dakota defeated a state ballot measure that would have banned most abortions after defeating a similar measure two years ago. The 2006 ban would have only allowed abortions to save the life of the mother and the 2008 ban added rape and incest exceptions with the hope of persuading more pro-life voters to support it. Instead, South Dakota voters defeated Initiated Measure 11 by a 55-45 percentage point margin. The margin was similar to the vote last time around despite the attempt to appeal to the majority of...

In South Dakota, John McCain has opened a seventeen point lead over Barack Obama. The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds McCain with 54% of the vote and Obama with 37% (see crosstabs). That’s a big change from July when the Democrat had pulled to within four points in this traditionally Republican state. In March, McCain led Obama by ten. A similar pattern was found in the neighboring states of Montana and North Dakota. All three were mentioned as part of Obama’s effort to expand the Electoral College map but McCain has now opened a double digit lead in...

Abortion advocates in South Dakota on Tuesday officially launched their campaign against a November ballot proposal that would prohibit most abortions. They say the ban is just a first step in overturning the Roe v. Wade decision that allowed virtually unlimited abortions throughout pregnancy. Planned Parenthood, which runs the only abortion center in the state, and the ACLU are leading the collection of pro-abortion groups. State voters defeated a 2006 ban on a 56 to 44 vote that would have prohibited all abortions except those possibly necessary to protect a mother's life. With polls showing voters wanted an abortion ban...

20 minutes ago WASHINGTON — Barack Obama became the first black presidential nominee in U.S. history on Tuesday, declaring victory over Hillary Clinton and lifting the curtain on an epic struggle for the White House against Republican John McCain. Clinton, credited by Obama as an inspiration to millions, refused to concede defeat and sparked a buzz early in the day about the possibility of a dream team by saying she's open to joining the ticket as his running mate. "Tonight, we mark the end of one historic journey with the beginning of another," Obama told nearly 20,000 cheering supporters in...

Some worrying signs for Barack Obama emerged Tuesday from the final two primaries of the long Democratic presidential nominating race. With the nomination all but sewed up, the Illinois Democrat showed weaknesses in South Dakota in particular that rival Hillary Clinton's campaign has warned could haunt him in November. According to early exit polls, voters Tuesday appeared to have strong concerns about his two decades of membership in Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago. More than a third of voters in South Dakota said the issue was important to them, following Sen. Obama's announcement this week that he would...

Hillary Clinton, projected to win South Dakota's primary but unable to keep Barack Obama from clinching the Democratic nomination, congratulated Obama tonight for the inspiring race he has run and said she was "committed to uniting our party," "This has been a long campaign and I will be making no decisions tonight," she said, provoking wild cheers from supporters.

Barack Obama's loyal legion tried. The story the boys on the bus want is for Hillary to throw in her crying towel today, at last the last day of the primaries. The symmetry and poetry of it all would bring a tear to any scribe's eye. Everyone is eager to pop the corks on the bubbly. Hillary can laugh last tonight even if, as expected, Democrats in South Dakota and Montana give their hearts, hands and votes to the man whose camp followers call Precious. (Some of them, to be even more respectful, call him Mr. Precious.) She has only...

Remarks of Senator Barack Obama -- Final Primary Night Tues., June 3, 2008 19:02:11 ET Tonight, after fifty-four hard-fought contests, our primary season has finally come to an end. Sixteen months have passed since we first stood together on the steps of the Old State Capitol in Springfield, Illinois. Thousands of miles have been traveled. Millions of voices have been heard. And because of what you said -- because you decided that change must come to Washington; because you believed that this year must be different than all the rest; because you chose to listen not to your doubts or...

AND NOW . . . amidst billowing clouds of fragrant, aromatic first- and second-hand premium cigar smoke. . . it is time for . . . that harmless, lovable little fuzz ball, the highly-trained broadcast specialist, having more fun than a human being should be allowed to have, from behind the golden EIB microphone, firmly ensconced in the prestigious Attila-the-Hun chair at the Limbaugh Institute of Advanced Conservative Studies, with talent on loan from G-d, at the cutting-edge of societal evolution, with half his brain tied behind his back — just to make it fair, the all-knowing, all-caring, all-sensing, all-feeling,...

WASHINGTON (AP) - Barack Obama effectively clinched the Democratic presidential nomination Tuesday, based on an Associated Press tally of convention delegates, becoming the first black candidate ever to lead his party into a fall campaign for the White House.

By BETH FOUHY, Associated Press Writer 7 minutes ago WASHINGTON - Hillary Rodham Clinton will concede Tuesday night that Barack Obama has the delegates to secure the Democratic nomination, campaign officials said, effectively ending her bid to be the nation's first female president. The former first lady will stop short of formally suspending or ending her race in her speech in New York City. She will pledge to continue to speak out on issues like health care. But for all intents and purposes, the two senior officials said, the campaign is over. Most campaign staff will be let go and...

Barack Obama effectively clinched the Democratic presidential nomination Tuesday, based on an Associated Press tally of convention delegates, becoming the first black candidate ever to lead his party into a fall campaign for the White House. Campaigning on an insistent call for change, Obama outlasted former first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton in a historic race that sparked record turnout in primary after primary, yet exposed deep racial divisions within the party. The AP tally was based on public commitments from delegates as well as more than a dozen private commitments. It also included a minimum number of delegates Obama was...

The idea is to keep it as close as possible. If she keeps it close in both states she wins the popular vote nationwide. Then when the left brings up 2000 we can say 2008 and you did it to your own party voters.

On the eve of the final pair of Democratic primaries, a new poll of South Dakota Democrats gives Hillary Clinton a 26-point lead over Barack Obama – a surprise, at least to me, in a state that had the early makings of an Obama stronghold. The survey, from the independent New Hampshire-based American Research Group, shows Clinton pounding Obama by a 60-34 percent spread. The only previous poll in the state, from about a month ago, had Obama up by 12. Because every other state around South Dakota previously went overwhelmingly for Obama, there had been little expectation in the...

On Todayâ€™s Show... Operation Chaos has ripped the Democrat Party in two, succeeding beyond our wildest dreams, and forced the DNC to disenfranchise hundreds of thousands of Democrats, including minorities. Clinton Inc. minion Harold Ickes made clear Hillary will fight on, encouraging feminists everywhere. (Rush 24/7 Members: Listen Here)Â» Now Shipping from the EIB Store: Operation Chaos T-shirts, Caps, and Stickers "The Democrats know that Obama has baggage, and unsavory characters that are his close friends and associates. They also know that he's not the Clintons, and they want the Clintons gone. I'm more convinced than ever that they've...

Members of Hillary Clinton's advance staff received calls and emails this evening from headquarters summoning them to New York City Tuesday night, and telling them their roles on the campaign are ending, two Clinton staffers tell my colleague Amie Parnes. The advance staffers — most of them now in Puerto Rico, South Dakota, and Montana — are being given the options of going to New York for a final day Tuesday, or going home, the aides said. The move is a sign that the campaign is beginning to shed — at least — some of its staff. The advance staff...

RAPID CITY, S.D. (AP) - Hillary Rodham Clinton will give her post-primary speech in New York Tuesday night, a rare departure from the campaign trail. Staffers who have worked for her on he ground in Puerto Rico, South Dakota and Montana have been invited to attend the event or go home for further instructions, campaign aides said. The New York senator had no other events Tuesday. She planned to address AIPAC Wednesday in Washington. But she is under increasing pressure to cede the Democratic nomination to Barack Obama after the final primaries. There was a sense of denouement in the...

The purification ceremony isn't an everyday ritual of U.S. presidential politics. The newly named Awe Kooda Bilaxpak Kuuxshish — better known as Barack Obama — faced east, the symbolic source of new life. His adopted Crow father, Hartford Black Eagle, prayed over him. Afterward, they walked arm-in-arm with Black Eagle's wife, Mary, to a podium, where Obama promised to live up to the meaning of his new name: "One Who Helps People Throughout the Land." "I want you to know that I will never forget you," Obama told the crowd, who had not seen a visitor of such political importance...

Presidential Primary Preference: South Dakota Likely Democratic Primary Voters -- May 31-June 1 Clinton ---60% Obama ---34% Undecided --6% About this Survey - Survey Sponsor: American Research Group, Inc. The American Research Group has been conducting surveys of voters since 1985. Sample Size: 600 completed telephone interviews among a random sample of likely Democratic primary voters living in South Dakota (600 Democrats). Sample Dates: May 31-June 1, 2008 Margin of Error: ± 4 percentage points, 95% of the time, on questions where opinion is evenly split. Question Wording: If the 2008 Democratic presidential preference primary were being held today between...